Permafrost is the layer of permanently frozen earth – over 3,000 feet thick in some places – that lies just beneath the land surface in Arctic regions. It formed over the past few million years when ice ages predominated. Now, under the influence of global warming, it is melting. And research suggests that this may have reached the point of triggering runaway climate change, unless we can find ways to intervene. The problem is that permafrost contains huge amounts of methane, a natural gas that’s being progressively released as the ice melts. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, having up to 80 times more warming potential than carbon dioxide. We can’t stop this process, but could we capture the methane as it is released? It […]